George Condo and the invented heads in retrospective focus
Published on 08/22/2026 at 14:03 | Editorial responsibility: Rafael Müller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWS
George Condo has built a distinctive universe of invented heads and fractured figures over four decades. His recent career survey at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris brought together around 80 paintings, 110 drawings and some 20 sculptures, underscoring the breadth of this practice as the museum details.
Key series and invented heads
Condo’s work turns on what he calls invented characters, hybrid figures that collide references from Old Master painting, comics and everyday observation. Across series of portraits and multi-figure compositions, he breaks faces into planes, stacking eyes and mouths to suggest psychological dissonance rather than faithful likeness.
In pastel and graphite groups such as Pastels, he uses softer media to explore these invented heads as quick, layered improvisations, revealing how minor shifts in line or smudge alter mood and personality. The bodies often remain skeletal or schematic, keeping attention on the volatility of expression.
Retrospectives and survey shows
The 2025-2026 exhibition at Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris is described by the institution as the most significant overview of George Condo’s work to date, organized in close dialogue with the artist. It structures his output into three strands: relationship to art history, treatment of the human figure and connection to abstraction.
Works loaned from major American and European museums, including MoMA, the Met and the Whitney Museum of American Art, anchor that survey and show how Condo’s invented heads have entered public collections. The exhibition’s scale mirrors the volume of his production since the late 1970s, from early graphic pieces to recent large canvases.
More background on George Condo’s work groups
For further reporting on George Condo, his exhibitions and market, the AD HOC NEWS archive offers additional context on survey shows and key works.
The work core across media
Condo moves between painting, drawing and sculpture, often translating motifs across media to test their resilience. A painted invented head can reappear as a more skeletal bronze or a densely worked drawing, where line replaces color to carry psychological charge.
The Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris emphasizes this cross-media approach by devoting a full space to around 110 drawings and interspersing roughly twenty sculptures throughout the galleries. This layout underlines how his graphic work is not preparatory but central to the practice.
Where the artist stands now
George Condo remains an active painter, draftsman and sculptor whose invented heads circulate between major public collections and ongoing gallery collaborations, with no specific new exhibition or auction date currently highlighted in the immediate time frame.
Key facts on George Condo
- Artist: George Condo
- Medium / Genre: Painting and drawing (invented heads, figurative abstraction)
- Born: 1957, Concord, New Hampshire, United States
- Place(s) of practice: Studio practice based in New York, with extensive exhibition history in Europe and the United States.
- Active since: Late 1970s, with four decades of continuous work in painting, drawing and sculpture.
- Key work groups: Invented heads, fragmented portraits, multi-figure compositions, Pastels
- Current/last exhibition: George Condo at Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, described by the museum as the most significant exhibition of his work, running October 10, 2025 to February 8, 2026.
- Major collections: MoMA (New York), The Met (New York), Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Humlebæk), Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris (Paris).
- Awards: Widely exhibited and collected; specific major prize listings are less foregrounded than institutional shows in current museum texts.
- Next date: No specific upcoming exhibition or auction date within the immediate 30-day window is emphasized in recent open-access sources; his work continues to circulate through institutions and galleries.
Frequently asked questions about George Condo
Where have George Condo’s invented heads been surveyed recently?
Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris organized a major George Condo exhibition from October 10, 2025 to February 8, 2026, presenting around 80 paintings, 110 drawings and some 20 sculptures in collaboration with the artist.
How do George Condo’s invented heads relate to art history?
The Paris museum describes his work as drawing on Western art history from Old Masters to contemporary painting, recombining those references into hybrid figures that merge classical structure with fractured, expressive distortion.
Which public collections hold important works by George Condo?
Recent exhibition materials list loans and holdings from institutions such as MoMA, The Met, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, indicating a strong public-collection presence for his paintings and drawings.
This article was produced with a.i. support and editorially reviewed. All statements without guarantee; auction results, exhibition dates and awards may change at short notice.
